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Hopes for early mass protests in the streets of Ottawa on the eve of Tuesday’s visit by US President George W. Bush fizzled out, as journalists outnumbered demonstrators.
A loose coalition of groups opposed to just about everything Bush supports had promised two demonstrations hours before Bush was due to jet into Ottawa Tuesday aboard Air Force One.
The first demonstration — of Palestinians and sympathisers of the Palestinian cause opposed to Washington’s support of Israel — attracted less than 40 demonstrators.
According to a quick head count by journalists, the protest attracted 39 demonstrators, 42 journalists and television crew members and three police officers.
A second, ostensibly larger, demonstration scheduled for the midst of the evening rush hour — was called by a group calling itself Students Against Bush.
Nobody turned up. Further protests however were expected on Tuesday.
According to “Students Against Bush,” the march attracted 100,000 protestors, but the corporate media is covering it up.
No comment necessary.
Critics claim that against the better judgement of Belgian commanders, Gen. Dallaire ordered his troops to disperse into a number of weak outposts incapable of mutual support should trouble arise [in Rwanda]. The Belgian court-martial discovered that the opposite had occurred. […]
Belgian commanders refused to comply with Dallaire’s orders. Concentrating soldiers, even in company locations, would require quartering them in tents. Belgian field living standards demanded that their soldiers be put up in hard shelters. With no extra UN funds to provide accommodation large enough to house a Belgian company, they instead dispersed themselves in platoon strength or less around the city.
Well, we wouldn’t want the rigors of enforcing UN resolutions or preventing genocide to interfere with the quartering requirements of the Belgian Army.
[source, sourcebq. In fact, more Americans believe France is our enemy (31%) in the War on Terror than believe Jacques Chirac’s country is our ally (22%). A plurality, 43%, believe that France’s role is somewhere in between ally and enemy.
That must be the 22% who got oil vouchers from the Ba’ath.
A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God — including the Declaration of Independence.
Apparently our ancestors left a bit of a mess and the good, progressive citizens of this country are cleaning it up, one religious reference at a time.
[source]
David Frankfurter posted a photograph of a suicide bomber that appears in a recent issue of the Hamas children’s newspaper — the picture is post-bombing (and graphic).
Stefan Sharkansky comments: ‘It is one of the most appalling photographs (with an equally appalling caption) that you’re ever likely to see. See for yourself how the psychotic death cult that is Hamas poisons children’s minds.’
We’re still asking: Where are the western media stories about such incitement of Palestinian children to kill, and to seek their own death?
Same place as all of the images of human slaughter houses in Fallujah. Remember the rule of Old Media — “If it doesn’t make America bleed, it doesn’t lead”.
— Records Set —
1 According to our best information, 40 government officials were indicted or convicted in the wake of Watergate. A reader computes that there was a total of 31 Reagan era convictions, including 14 because of Iran*Contra and 16 in the Department of Housing & Urban Development scandal. 47 individuals and businesses associated with the Clinton machine were convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes with 33 of these occurring during the Clinton administration itself.
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Mimount Bousakla, a female, socialist Belgian senator of Moroccan origin has gone into hiding. Already in hiding is a female Dutch politician of Somali Muslim origin who is now a critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. (Her first name is also sometimes spelt Ayan or Ayann.) She helped Theo Van Gogh make the film Submission. They got him, now they hope to get her too.
What other religion has national legislators hiding in fear? Doesn’t it strike any of the EUlite as a problem? But it’s not just Europe.
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UQAM has cancelled a planned speech by U.S. ambassador Paul Celucci because of - you guessed it - “security concerns”.
If you’re not willing to defend your nation externally, soon enough you won’t be able to protect it internally either.
“Given that [the president] heads the most powerful nation in the world but that it has the worst reputation of all time, there is a paradox,” says Stanley Symington, a retired marketing executive in England. “He should pay more attention to restoring America’s reputation in the world, rather than to guarding its security.”
How can one even discuss issues with a person like that? It’s the same thing as suggesting that women spend their efforts on looking pretty for house invaders, rather than spending the time at the shooting range.
But even high ranking officials are almost as clueless:
A more productive approach, suggests Karsten Voigt, a top adviser to German Chancellor Gerhard Schrööder, would be to pay more attention to America’s friends.
“In the end even the world superpower USA needs allies and they can’t get any better ones than the Europeans,” he told German radio on Wednesday. “And in order to have Europe on their side they need to keep an open ear to our arguments.”
The USA is paying attention to its friends. You’re just not working for one of them. Morever, the idea that European allies are the best available doesn’t pass the laugh test over here across the pond. Once the EUlite grasp that fact, they may have a chance at understanding current USA foreign policy.
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A Reuters dispatch on Time magazine’s “person” of the year notes that among those under consideration are Mel Gibson and Michael Moore:
Gibson was proposed for directing “The Passion of the Christ,” a controversial film seen by many as anti-Semitic. Moore made “Fahrenheit 9/11,” a film highly critical of the Bush administration which was a huge box office hit.
According to RottenTomatoes.com, the box-office take from “Fahrenheit” is just over $119 million, less than one-third the $370 million “Passion” has made. Yet the “news” service describes “Fahrenheit” as the “huge box office hit” and says nothing about what critics have said about it.
At least Reuters didn’t put sneer quotes around “film”.
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Mental health officials in South Florida blasted Rush Limbaugh on Monday, saying the conservative talk show host’s offer of “free therapy” for traumatized John Kerry voters has made a mockery of a valid psychological problem.
“Rush Limbaugh has a way of back-handedly slamming people,” said Sheila Cooperman, a licensed clinician with the American Health Association (AHA) who listened Friday as Limbaugh offered to personally treat her patients. “He’s trying to ridicule the emotional state this presidential election produced in many of us here in Palm Beach County.”
No, really? It’s obvious why Cooperman is such a successful practioner, with the amazing ability to draw keen insights like that. But she’s not the only one with that kind of talent in her field:
On Nov. 12, accused by Gordon of picking up the story to rub it in the faces of Democrats, Limbaugh said, “Now, my friends, I didn’t do that. I reached out. I offered a hand of friendship. I offered my own counseling services.”
AHA officials, listening to the taped broadcasts, described Limbaugh’s tone of voice as sarcastic.
See?
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It may sound apocalyptic, but I do believe that the democratic experiment in continental Europe, begun just over 200 years or so ago, is coming to a close.
We’ve tried planting liberal democracy in Europe and failed. It’s time to try elsewhere, such as in the Middle East, with people who may yet be able to handle it.
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Patrolling the Bay Hap River, Kerry and his crew discovered they were about to be ambushed by a Vietcong soldier who had just popped up at the shoreline with a loaded rocket launcher in his hands. With the VC about to fire, Kerry crewmate Thomas Bellodeau shot and wounded the attacker, saving the entire boat.
Only then did Kerry leap to the shore to chase the wounded enemy down - finishing him off behind a hootch.
When critics suggested that Kerry’s actions that day were something less than heroic, they were hooted down by the press.
Certainly the as yet unnamed Marine in Fallujah deserves, if not the Silver Star, the same slack the press cut Kerry.
Only if he turns and denounces the USA military as baby-killers and war criminals. Then whatever he did will be OK with the Old Media.
Yay Condi Rice. I want her to go to Saudi Arabia, and I want her first words upon getting off the plane to be “I’ll drive”.
In many countries of Europe, former inmates of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been relishing their freedom. […]
Not so in France, where four prisoners from the U.S. naval base were arrested as soon as they arrived home in July, and haven’t been heard from since. Under French law, they could remain locked up for as long as three years while authorities decide whether to put them on trial […]
Not that I object much to what France is doing here (hard to write, but true) but it’s just stunning how the chattering classes find nothing wrong with it as long as it’s not done by the USA or Israel.
American diplomats pressured the Halliburton Company in late 2003 to keep using a Kuwaiti subcontractor to truck fuel into Iraq, despite evidence that the company was charging exorbitant prices, newly released State Department documents show.
The documents - a handful of e-mail messages and memorandums to and from American diplomats - raise yet more questions about the post-invasion fuel imports to Iraq, which are already the subject of federal inquiries into possible overbilling and fraud.
They indicate that the Kuwait government secretly demanded that only one company - a Kuwaiti company, Altanmia - be selected to handle fuel sales to Iraq. And they show behind-the-scenes efforts by the American-run Coalition Provisional Authority and the American Embassy in Kuwait to ensure that demand was met, both to speed delivery and foster Kuwaiti support in Iraq.
The documents, however, do not clarify the central questions about the imports: why the Americans went along with such high costs and which parties to the transactions may have benefited most. The documents were released Wednesday by Representative Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat and ranking minority member of the House Committee on Government Reform, as he asked for new Congressional hearings on the matter. The committee has gathered hundreds of documents related to the issue.
Whenever there’s funny stuff like this, betting on State Department arm-twisting over corporate corruption is the way to go.
A man pulled out from behind a wall and fired an RPG at my tank. I have to get another tank to go back in there.
Engineers hired to investigate the cause of September’s massive Big Dig tunnel leak have discovered that the project is riddled with hundreds of leaks that are pouring millions of gallons of water into the $14.6 billion tunnel system.
While none of the leaks is as large as the fissure that snarled traffic for miles on Interstate 93 northbound in September, the breaches appear to permeate the subterranean road system, calling into question the quality of construction and managerial oversight provided by Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff on the massive highway project.
Ah, the wonder of government projects with huge cost overruns driven primarily by political egos. Maybe Boston should call up its Senators and complain?
Capt Kirk Mayfield, commander of the Phantoms, called for fire from his task force’s mortar team. But Sgt Anyett didn’t want to wait. “Dude, give me the sniper rifle. I can take them out - I’m from Alabama.”
Sounds like our troops have been fully supplied with economy sized cans of whup-ass.
Woe betide any TV reporter who didn’t check his facts properly before claiming that George W didn’t finish his national guard service.
Gosh, how terrible, reporters being expected to check their facts before airing a story! It as if viewers expect TV reporters to be accurate or something.
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After the murder of Theo Van Gogh on a crowded Dutch street, a mural was painted on a building across the street with the logo “Thou shall not kill”. The Dutch authorities removed it because they agreed with the complaint of a local Imam that it was “racist” and “offensive”.
Only four of the 26 Democratic challengers for Congress and governorships endorsed and bankrolled by the left-wing MoveOn PAC were elected Tuesday, but some suffered from that organization’s support.
In Arizona, former Flagstaff Mayor Paul Babbitt was embarrassed before his rural constituents in his campaign for Congress when Republican Rep. Rick Renzi mentioned MoveOn’s endorsement of Babbitt. Renzi had been considered one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents but won easily with 59 percent of the vote.
In Minnesota, missing children’s advocate Patty Wetterling’s campaign for Congress suffered when Republican ads attacked her for accepting MoveOn’s endorsement and cash. Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy was re-elected with 54 percent.
It says something significant about your organization when just the mention of it can be damaging. I doubt that MoveOn will realize this, however.
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In calling the president, Mr. Kerry abandoned a threat to contest the election result in Ohio in deference to a decisive popular vote victory by a man who four years ago won the presidency with less than 50 percent of the popular vote. [emphasis added]
Adam Nagourney, writing in today’s New York Times.
Er, that’s not right Adam. Kerry, in his graceful concession speech, said as follows:
I would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we would prevail. But it is now clear that even when all the provisional ballots are counted, which they will be, there won’t be enough outstanding votes for us to be able to win Ohio. And therefore we cannot win this election. [emphasis added]
Kerry conceded because he could not win the electoral college—per his own admission and the bare-bones facts—not in “deference to a decisive popular vote victory” writ large.
But it’s what Nagourney meant for Kerry to say, so what’s the problem?
Via dave t in the comments at Junkyard Blog, we have the news the Michael Moore’s response to the election is to close his website. Yeah, gotta “clean up” the historical record before it’s used as gloating material.
“All of us, Republicans and Democrats, woke up this morning after the election and realized life goes on. Unless, of course, you’re a terrorist.”
— Dennis Miller
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Poor guy. He writes a wonderful spoof on Canada defending itself against the onslaught of digruntled lefties fleeing the Bush Regime (well worth checking out). Meanwhile the Candadian government is officially warning American refugees that it can be hard to become a Canadian citizen.
Canadian officials made clear on Wednesday that any U.S. citizens so fed up with Bush that they want to make a fresh start up north would have to stand in line like any other would-be immigrants — a wait that can take up to a year.
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Britain’s most famous scientist, Stephen Hawking, condemned the U.S. led invasion of Iraq as a “war crime” and said Tuesday it was based on lies.
[…]
“The war was based on two lies,” said Hawking. “The first was we were in danger of weapons of mass destruction and the second was that Iraq was somehow to blame for Sept. 11.
It’s really sad to see someone fail to use his own strong intellect this way. Neither of those constituted the primary reasons for the invasion of Iraq that I was aware of. Hawking would never argue physics by mistating someone else’s premises so badly.
Neato! The Yahoo Election Map has, at this moment, called Washington for Kerry even though Bush is leading in the counted ballots. Now, Bush is leading by just a tiny margin but that hardly seems to justify calling it for Kerry.
Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, who made a controversial film about Islamic culture recently, has been shot dead in Amsterdam, Dutch media report. […]
Van Gogh, 47, had received death threats after his film Submission, on violence against women in Islamic societies, was shown on Dutch TV.
The film was made with liberal Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee who fled an arranged marriage.
It’s not so much that Islam produces deranged killers like this, but that no one else seems to much care. That’s why Caliphascist fellow-travelers focus only on the deranged in all religions and avoid as much as possible discussing the attitudes and actions of the general populace around them.
San Francisco, November 1, 2004- A mob of Arab students at San Francisco State University attacked a group of College Republicans on the San Francisco State University campus at noon today during a “Turnout the Vote” event in front of the campus student union building. Derek Wray, President of the SFSU College Republicans, told Front Page Magazine that an angry mob of Palestinian students attacked the club’s table, as well as individual members of the Republican club who were handing out pro-Bush/Cheney campaign materials. According to Wray, campus police were nearby, but “just stood around watching and, instead of protecting the College Republican students from the mob that was pouring drinks on our table and materials, and even physically assaulting our members, only suggested that the campus Republicans leave rather than arrest those responsible for the violence.”
[…]
The campus Chief of Police was in meetings and unavailable to comment, and SFSU President Robert Corrigan’s Office declined to comment referring this reporter to Ellen Griffin, a campus media coordinator. Ms. Griffin stated an investigation is actively under way.
Wray is probably lucky he wasn’t arrested for being Republican on campus.
Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape — of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday — bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.
On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military’s unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.
I can’t believe that al-Jazeera thought the work of Osama bin Laden could be improved via editing. Isn’t that lesé majeste?
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The 28 Oct transcript of Senator Kerry’s remarks looks like this:
Brokaw: Someone has analyzed the President’s military aptitude tests and yours, and concluded that he has a higher IQ than you do.
Kerry: That’s great. More power. I don’t know how they’ve done it, because my record is not public. So I don’t know where you’re getting that from.
The same transcript from 31 Oct looks like this:
Brokaw: “Someone has analyzed the president’s military aptitude tests and yours, and concluded that he has a higher IQ than you do.”
Kerry: “That’s great. More power. I don’t know how they’ve done it.”
Just cut a bit of superflous information that the public doesn’t need to cluttering their views and voila — a fake but truthful transcript!